Profits were up 90 percent in April and 37 percent in May when compared to the same months in 2014, according to Golf course general manager Tony Roberto. The course opened back up on April 15.

AGAWAM -- The Agawam Municipal Golf Course saw considerable financial gains during its first two months of the spring season, but its operators say it now needs some help from the city to maintain momentum.

Profits were up 90 percent in April and 37 percent in May when compared to the same months in 2014, according to Golf course general manager Tony Roberto. The course opened back up on April 15.

Roberto attributes the course's newfound success to a harsh winter, favorable spring conditions and diligent maintenance of the facilities. Many other area golf courses suffered from what's known in the industry as "winterkill," Roberto said, which defines turf loss during the winter. So many people have come to the relatively unaffected Agawam Municipal Golf Course this year instead of their local courses, he explained.

"People were looking to get out as soon as they could because it was such a tough winter," he added.

But just as things were looking up, the course's 15-year-old commercial lawn mower went kaput. Roberto and golf course superintendent Daniel Shay have requested $71,000 from Agawam City Council to purchase a new one.

The mower chopped what is called the "rough" of the course, or the first portion off of the fairway where a player might hit his or her ball. Roberto said that specific kind of mower is essential to maintaining the aesthetics of the green and increasing speed of play.

"We maintained it and welded it and did everything we could to keep the thing running," he said of the mower.

The Council's Ad Hoc Golf Committee, made up of Roberto, Shay, and Councilors Dennis J. Perry, James P. Cichetti and Anthony R. Suffriti, has recommended that the council approve the general account funds for the mower, without the requiring the golf course to pay it back.

"It's something they need up there. It's too far gone," Cichetti said of the mower.

In 2014 golf course management purchased 66 new carts, repaved a parking lot and beautified the greens. But the course borrowed more than $300,000 from the city in 2014 to complete those projects, which it will have to pay back over the next decade.

 

The council also used more than $22,000 to bridge a shortfall in the golf course's fiscal 2014 budget. But Roberto anticipates the course will be able to pay that back by the end of fiscal 2015 ending June 30.

The golf committee was formed in fall 2014 after Councilors questioned the course's management after it operated in a deficit for three years, with an $81,813 deficit in fiscal year 2014. Roberto said the committee has helped increase understanding between golf course management and the City Council.

"It's an opportunity for us to see them in a different light instead of them sitting in a meeting on-stage with 11 other members," Roberto said of the Council.

Cichetti agreed that the boost in transparency has alleviated tension on both ends. And he said he's impressed by the course's notable improvements, both visibly and financially.

"it's finally starting to turn for the better," he said of the course, which he played a tournament on this past weekend. "The play is up and the place looks phenomenal."

A psychiatrist hired by the defense argued that the Massachusetts mental health system failed Alemany by repeatedly releasing him from treatment.

BOSTON — Edwin Alemany, who is accused of murdering Wilbraham native Amy Lord and attacking two other Boston women, told clinicians at Bridgewater State Hospital, the mental hospital where he was held after his arrest, "I never feel guilty. I have no remorse about anything."

The comment was written in a discharge report and read in Suffolk County Superior Court on Thursday by Assistant District Attorney John Pappas during his cross-examination of Dr. Keith Ablow, a psychiatrist hired by Alemany's defense attorneys. Alemany's attorney, Jeffrey Denner, has admitted in court that Alemany killed Lord and attacked Alexandra Cruz and Kayleigh Ballantyne. He is relying on an insanity defense, arguing that Alemany is not criminally responsible for his actions due to his mental illness.

Ablow argued that the state's mental health system failed Alemany by repeatedly releasing him from about a dozen psychiatric hospitals between ages 14 and 18. After that, Alemany aged out of the Department of Youth Services system and received psychiatric treatment only in jail.

"We have a shattered, sorry excuse for a mental health care system, and this is an example of it," Ablow said.

"It's tragically sad those events took place, and they were also preventable events," Ablow said, referring to the crimes.

Ablow was on the stand for nearly five hours. On Wednesday, Ablow testified to Alemany's long history of mental illness. He said Alemany had suicidal and homicidal thoughts, heard voices and saw visions. Alemany tried to kill himself a dozen times and hurt himself by eating screws and cutting himself. Hospitals prescribed five or six medications at a time, including anti-psychotic and anti-depressant drugs. Doctors made a variety of diagnoses. When he got older, Alemany tried to self-medicate with alcohol, marijuana and ecstasy.

Pappas asked Ablow about several hospital reports that wrote that Alemany was trying to manipulate the system - entering psychiatric hospitals to get out of the custody of the Department of Youth Services. At the hospital, doctors wrote, Alemany had more privileges - for example, he used the phone to call friends and discuss his drug use. Alemany apparently told other psychiatric patients who cut themselves to blame their behavior on instructions from an "imaginary cat," as Alemany did.

Ablow described a discharge report encouraging the Department of Youth Services to keep Alemany in its custody even if he was suicidal or homicidal as "malpractice." He said Alemany frequently tried to minimize his own illness.

Pappas also cited a report from the Worcester House of Corrections in February 2015, which revealed that Alemany cut himself with glass taken from a broken window and took a shank and threatened to stab mental health staff. Alemany said he was acting out so he would be returned to the Nashua Street Jail, where he had more privileges.

Pappas pressed Ablow on why some statements Alemany gave the police were accurate while those connected to the crimes were inaccurate.

Ablow said Alemany has amnesia because he disassociates from events and is then "always grasping for shreds of reality."

Ablow said, "I don't take Mr. Alemany's reports of anything as reliable because of his psychiatric conditions and his periods of amnesia and dissociative episodes. I'd seek to corroborate all of it."

When Pappas asked about Alemany's seemingly normal behavior after the attacks - including buying a cell phone and lottery tickets - Ablow said that was a symptom of his mental illness. "You could probably imagine that if someone had allegedly brutally maimed and killed a woman, then walked in to get lottery tickets and get a cell phone, it's not what we'd call normal," Ablow said.

Alemany had his head down on the defense table during much of the testimony. His mother, who ran out of the courtroom crying on Wednesday, listened with her head down as Ablow described the way Alemany's family denied he was sick.

Prosecutors are expected to rebut Ablow's testimony by bringing their own expert, Dr. Martin Kelly. Kelly will testify Thursday afternoon and closing arguments are expected on Friday.

The $120.8 million project won final state approvals, along with $72.4 million in state funding.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. (AP) -- The Massachusetts School Building Authority has approved Pittsfield's design for a new Taconic High School and will provide additional funding for construction.

The Berkshire Eagle reported that officials received word Wednesday that the $120.8 million project won final state approvals, along with $72.4 million in state funding.

The City Council in April had unanimously approved bonding for up to $45 million for the city's share of the school.

The new 246,520-square-foot school will be constructed adjacent to the current Taconic High and is expected to open in the fall of 2018.

Mayor Daniel Bianchi says the selection of construction firms and a formal ground-breaking are expected in early 2016.

___

Information from: The Berkshire (Mass.) Eagle

The Old Chapel at UMass is being renovated and should reopen in 2016.

AMHERST — The Old Chapel is now on the National Register of Historic Places after the National Park Service listed it there last month.

Preserve UMass nominated the chapel for inclusion last summer.

The naming is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate and protect America's historic and archaeological resources, according to the register's website.

Built in 1885, the chapel served as a library, assembly hall and heart of what was then the Massachusetts Agricultural College campus.

"Chancellor Subbaswamy deserves the credit for putting the Old Chapel on the National Register," Professor Emeritus Joseph S. Larson, the corresponding secretary of Preserve UMass, said in a press release. "He recognized the significance of this building when he arrived on the campus and became determined to see it put back in service after being closed since 1996.

"In addition to his endorsement, the Chancellor has secured funds to renovate the interior of the Chapel to meet current building codes and serve today's needs on the campus," Larson said.

Larson added, "We are also grateful to the staff of the Massachusetts Historical Commission who took our draft, did more research on the architecture and history of the Chapel, and put it in final form to meet the standards of the Massachusetts Historical Commission and the National Park Service."

The Old Chapel was designed by Worcester architect Stephen Earle in the Romanesque Revival style. It was used as a classroom building, library, auditorium, museum and chapel, and was home to the UMass Minuteman Marching Band until it was deemed unsafe in 1996.

It has been largely unused since, although it houses the university's 42-bell carillon, according to a press release.

UMass is in the middle of a $21 million campaign to renovate the Old Chapel. According to the fundraising website, the project is in the design phase, with construction tentatively scheduled to begin in August with completion in October 2016.

The total project cost is $21 million, with $2.5 million coming from resources raised through UMass Rising.

Estimates to re-do the field as grass were between $225,000 and $350,000

SOUTH HADLEY - Town officials reaffirmed their commitment to spend $900,000 to replace the natural grass at the high school's Memorial Field with artificial turf – and rebutted public health concerns about the controversial project – at Tuesday's Selectboard meeting.

Following two hours of discussion, when the Capital Planning Committee explained why they supported the expenditure and switch away from grass, the Selectboard unanimously voted to approve the project that could begin later this year.

A majority of those who spoke at the June 2 public forum supported the idea, saying studies have deemed the surface safe, including Capital Planning Committee chair Ted Boulais and the town's recreation director Andy Rogers.

The men referred to documents from Massachusetts and Connecticut departments of public health.

Using the manufactured surface is "not generally expected to result in health effects," Boulais said.

"I would be crazy if I pitched something to you that causes cancer," Rogers said. "If you don't eat the crumbs" there is no health risk.

In addition to concerns about whether the recycled automobile tire crumbs used for the turf posed a health risk, audience members opposed to the expenditure questioned the process that did not permit Town Meeting last month to vote to delete the turf from consideration.

Selectman Ira Brezinsky said Town Meeting members last year voted in the new procedure.

"We can't rescind the process put in place in the fall of 2014," he said. "It's the Selectboard, rather than Town Meeting as a whole, that will make that decision."

According to Rogers, the $900,000 turf field comes with an eight-year warranty. He also said they usually last about 15 years, and that a new carpet is about half that price to replace.

The surface does not include a track around the turf field, Rogers told the audience in response to a question, because that would have cost another $900,000.

"It pains me not to ask for a track," he said.

Estimates to re-do the field as grass were between $225,000 and $350,000.

One reason officials provided for why the artificial turf would be less expensive in the long run was that it could be used much more frequently without falling apart.

Numerous factors drove down the inmate population and pushed up savings, like educational and work opportunities in jails, re-entry programs that begin three months before the end of an inmate's sentence, housing help and other support services, said Sheriff Michael Ashe.

LUDLOW - The number of inmates in the Hampden County correctional system has plunged 30 percent since 2008, according to a newly released study, and Sheriff Michael Ashe credits a wide range of policies and rehabilitation priorities.

The New York-based Vera Institute of Justice reports in the May study "The Price of Jails" that 634 fewer inmates were incarcerated in 2014 than 2008, which translates to fewer housing units, less staff and about $13.1 million in annual savings.

"We like to be change agents in county jails," said Ashe in an interview at the Hampden County Correctional Center. "We're providing opportunity and hope," and that's accomplished by practices the sheriff calls "innovatively courageous."

Numerous factors drove down the inmate population and pushed up savings, like educational and work opportunities in jails, re-entry programs that begin three months before the end of an inmate's sentence, housing help and other support services, said Ashe.

"We're not just that fortress in the woods. We're out in the community," said Ashe. He added that about 300 non-profit organizations work with the department to ease re-entry and keep former inmates from reoffending. The recidivism rate has dropped by a quarter since 2000.

The idea that convicts should be punished without mercy is at play in other jail systems, but Hampden County officials are working together to make re-entry smooth, successful and safe for the public.

Since 2008, the Ludlow facility, tucked away on Randall Road, has been able to close six housing units, two of them maximum security, and 11 overflow units because of the drop in inmates. When a unit closes, staff are reassigned to other roles.

Bill Christofori, assistant superintendent of the department, showed MassLive a closed housing unit, explaining that it's sometimes still used for emergency shelter.

"The more people we can put in lower security, the lesser cost," said Christofori. Closing the units, called pods, saved well over $1 million per year.

Day reporting also contributed to the drop in inmates and costs. Some low-level offenders monitored by GPS are ordered to report to the jail every day to participate in one program or another, and they're subject to drug screens and breathalyzer tests. This frees up cells and resources, and saves the county money on health care.

Between 300 and 400 current inmates are chronically ill, costing the department $5,000 a day. One convict is a hemophiliac, said Christofori, and his medication alone costs $5,000 per week. He was put on day reporting, which shifted that burden off the department.

Right now, the average male inmate spends eight months incarcerated while women spend an average of five months.

"We have to get them back into the community," said Christofori. "Do you want to send them back a better person rather than ... the minute they walk out the door, the guy from the gang picks them up at the front desk?"

Ashe said an education level below high school is common among the inmates. Ninety percent have histories of substance abuse, 70 percent were unemployed when they were arrested and 93 percent lack marketable job skills, said Ashe.

"Re-entry starts Day One. ... That's been our mantra," he said. "We're into community corrections and we're looking at, we call it, the 'three-legged stool:' Housing, jobs and supportive services."

After Incarceration Support Services on State Street in Springfield helps provide newly released convicts with many of the tools and skills they need. Ashe said the department is proud of this program, which started in 1996.

Ashe praised Springfield Police Commissioner John Barbieri and the community-oriented C3 policing strategy. He also complimented federal judge and former district attorney Mark Mastroianni for the sentences he imposes, often in line with Sheriff's Department philosophy.

"We're all working together," said Ashe. "Public safety is everyone's concern."

He has faith that Gov. Charlie Baker and Senate President Stanley Rosenberg, D-Amherst, will recognize the successes in Hampden County.

"Informed public leaders are now seeing" the fruits of the department's labor, said Ashe. "We're going to see, over the next four or five years, very innovative things going on to be able to control these expenses and do it in a way that enhances public safety."

Ashe has been sheriff for more than 40 years. He is not running for reelection in 2016.

A wildife rehabilitator said the raccoons were malnourished and most-likely orphaned.

HATFIELD -- Fast-acting state troopers used welding gloves and a cat carrier to rescue a trio of baby raccoons from a poison ivy patch on the side of Route 5 Wednesday.

 

The incident began when Trooper Jason Yagodzinski , patrolling Route 5, saw the three raccoons on the road. Fearing that they might get run over, he moved them to the side of the road.

Trooper Robert Wyckoff then went to his own house and retrieved the family's cat carrier to safely contain the feisty critters.

Meanwhile, the raccoons moved into what the troopers believed to be a patch of poison ivy so Wyckoff donned a pair of welding gloves for protection, fished them out of the weeds and placed them inside the cat carrier.

The troopers took the babies to a licensed wildlife rehabilitation specialist in Wendell who said they were siblings and undernourished, most likely as a result of being orphaned.

The animal rescuer intends to nurse them back to health and release them back into the wild.

The troopers are attached to the Northampton barracks.

The Amherst police grant is for smart policing.

AMHERST - The Amherst Police Department is one 27 departments statewide to receive funding as part of the $2.1 million Edward J. Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program offered by the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, Office of Grants and Research.

Gov. Charlie Baker's office released the announcement of the Byrne awards.

According to the release, Amherst Police was awarded $92,164 for a smart policing grant.

 "These grants offer strong support for our municipal law enforcement partners and the communities they serve to tackle some of the most difficult challenges they face," Baker said in a press release.

"Youth violence and the opioid crisis are just two areas where we are combining forces to make a positive impact in communities across Massachusetts, and it is my hope these grants will expedite our progress."

"Local police know best which solutions will work for their communities," said Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito, "and these grants allow them to seek funds in support of policy objectives that are specific to their localized needs."

The grants target substance abuse enforcement and/or intervention with an emphasis on opioids; youth violence prevention, delinquency prevention, school safety, and/or youth engagement; smart policing; and improving coordinated responses to mental health, according to the press release.

Amherst police could not be reached for comment.

Holyoke, Northampton, and Springfield also received awards. 

The seminar, open to the public, regards campaign finance reporting as governed by state law.

SPRINGFIELD - Candidates for municipal office and the public are invited to attend an informational seminar regarding campaign finance reporting on Monday, June 8, at the Springfield Central Library.

The seminar is at 6 p.m., Monday, in the Children's Room at the Central Library, located at 220 State St.

The state Office of Campaign and Political Finance will be hosting the seminar. All candidates for municipal office are encouraged to attend as well as their campaign committee treasurer, according to a news release. Campaign finance reporting including the recording of political contributions and expenses is governed by state law..

The event is specifically to discuss campaign finance reporting by "depository' candidates (City Council and Mayoral).

For additional information, contact the Springfield Election Office at (413) 787-6190.

Moriarty, a Vietnam veteran, probation officer, corrections officer and assistant court clerk, was elected to four terms as the Hampden Country register of probate before he stepped down in 2012 because of his illness.

WILBRAHAM — Though he'd never admit it, former Hampden County Register of Probate Thomas P. Moriarty Jr. would have enjoyed the large crowd of mourners who attended his funeral Thursday morning, said his son, Sean Moriarty, in his eulogy.

"He would have leaned over and whispered 'Do you see all the people here?'" Sean Moriarty said.

Thomas P. Moriarty Jr., who would have turned 71 later this month, died Saturday after a 12-year battle with primary sclerosing cholangitis, a disease of the bile ducts where inflammation causes scars within those ducts, gradually causing serious liver damage.

He left behind his friends, colleagues and family and also a list of people he wanted his family to help in some way.

"He always told me what to do," Sean Moriarty said. "That didn't change. And we are going to help as many of those people as we can."

He is survived by his wife, Sandy Moriarty; two sons, Sean and his wife, Andrea, of Pasadena, California, and Richard and wife, Sarah, of Hong Kong; three brothers, Hugh and his wife, Linda, of Wilbraham, Dan of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Kevin of Florida; and two granddaughters, Ella and Harlinn Moriarty; and many nieces and nephews.

Moriarty had a liver transplant in 2005 using tissue donated by his son, Richard. He rejected the notion of having another transplant in 2012 because he didn't want to harm another ill person's chances of recovery by prolonging his own life.

His surgeons from Boston's Leahy Clinic in Burlington were in attendance Thursday morning.

Moriarty was elected to four terms as the Hampden Country register of probate before he stepped down in 2012 because of his illness. Before that, Moriarty, a Vietnam veteran, had stints in law enforcement as a probation officer, a corrections officer and as assistant court clerk.

The funeral drew elected officials past and present including Sheriff Michael J. Ashe, county register of deeds Donald Ashe, state Sen. James T. Welch, former Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly and former Springfield Mayor William Sullivan.

Community, whether from his native Pine Point section of Springfield, the county, the state or the United States of America as a soldier, was central to Moriarty, said Monsignor George Farland in his funeral homily.

"We gather here because our community has suffered a great loss," Farland said. "He loved this community and he gave himself to it."

Like many, Farland described his time visiting with Moriarty in Moriarty's final weeks.

"He made me a better priest," Farland said.

Farland said he told Moriarty that Moriarty was "ready" to pass on.

"I'm not only ready. I know where I'm going," Farland quoted Moriarty as saying .

The Monsignor told mourners he could only reply to his friend: "When you get there, help me get there too."

Hampden County Sheriff Michael Ashe choked up delivering his eulogy.

"I'll even be more honest with you and tell you, straight out, that because Tom and I were, as he once put it to me, 'street mutts,' I never thought that he would send me scurrying to the dictionary to see what he was talking about – but scurry I did. I guess that I wanted to see if it was some word that Pine Point guys used growing up that us guys on Bloomfield Street missed out on," Ashe said.

"And, Tom, we know that you told us not to cry, but please, just this one time, let us have our tears."

A shoplifting suspect with two lifejackets stuffed down his pants was wrestled to the ground by officers in a Southwick Ocean State Job Lot, police say.

A shoplifting suspect with two lifejackets stuffed down his pants was wrestled to the ground by officers in a Southwick Ocean State Job Lot, police say.

On Wednesday afternoon, Southwick officer Ernest Malone responded to a report of a theft at the CVS on College Highway. An initial search down the road to the Connecticut border came up empty, according to a police report filed with Westfield DIstrict Court, so Malone went to adjacent stores to search for the suspect.

In the nearby Ocean State Job Lot Malone peered down aisles until he saw a man wearing maroon sweatpants, like the thief described by an employee at CVS. He was, Malone alleges the report, in the process of getting intimately acquainted with an object from the store.

"It took him several second to stuff this object down his pants, as the object appeared large," Malone wrote. "The entire time he was doing this he was looking to the front of the store and he had not noticed that I was off to his left side watching him."

Malone greeted the suspect as he left the aisle, and recognized him from a previous traffic stop as James Loughery, 36, according to Malone's report.

Malone stopped him in another aisle and asked what he was carrying; he allegedly pulled a life vest out of his pants. Malone ordered him to turn around and put his hands behind his back, but Loughery allegedly would not come quietly, according to the report.

"As soon as I reached out to handcuff him he started to run," Malone wrote.

Malone reported that he grabbed Loughery and knocked him to the ground. The two continued to wrestle, until another officer assisted Malone in restraining Loughery.

Police allegedly found two sweaters and two life jackets stuffed down Loughery's sweatpants. Security footage from CVS allegedly showed Loughery stealing a $229.99 electric toothbrush.

Loughery was arraigned Thursday in Westfield District Court on two counts of shoplifting, two counts of larceny under $250 and resisting arrest.

Northampton Police Capt. Jody Kasper said the department has been without a school resource officer since last year.

NORTHAMPTON — The Northampton Police Department plans to finance a school resource officer with the $98,724 it has received from the state as part of a program to stem youth violence.

Police Capt. Jody Kasper said the department has been without such an officer since last year. The money will pay the officer's salary and benefits, she said.

Gov. Charlie Baker, Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito and Secretary of Public Safety and Security Dan Bennett announced that 27 cities and towns will receive a total of $2,169,409 from the Edward J. Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program through the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security.

"These grants offer strong support for our municipal law enforcement partners and the communities they serve to tackle some of the most difficult challenges they face," Baker said in a press release. "Youth violence and the opioid crisis are just two areas where we are combining forces to make a positive impact in communities across Massachusetts, and it is my hope these grants will expedite our progress."

The state program provides local communities with critical funding for a range of programs, drug treatment and victim and witness initiatives. The round of grants announced on Thursday are aimed at helping local police departments develop programs for substance abuse enforcement, youth violence prevention, delinquency and school safety.

No doctors or bedside nurses were cut, which Baystate is making as a way of closing a $22 million system-wide budget shortfall

SPRINGFIELD — Baystate Health will lay off 24 employees, cut hours for another 17 workers and not fill 45 open positions as a way of closing a $22 million system-wide budget shortfall.

The jobs are all based in Springfield and almost entirely at the flagship Baystate Medical Center operation, spokesman Ben Craft said Thursday. The eliminated jobs do not include bedside nurses nor do they include doctors. The jobs do include clinical support and administrative jobs and 10 management positions, Craft said.

Those to be laid off were given notice that their jobs will end in 30 days.

Without the cuts, Baystate would have had trouble making its projected operating margin for the year, money used to keep up with capital expenses for buildings, programs and equipment, Craft said.

Baystate blamed the shortfall on the difference between what it the government pays it to care for the poor and what that care costs.

Baystate Medical Center is one of the largest providers of Medicaid services in Massachusetts, according to a news release, and provided more than $112 million in unreimbursed care in 2014.

Nancy Shendell-Falik, chief operating officer of Baystate Medical Center, said in the release, "We are committed to providing these services in line with our charitable mission; unfortunately the reimbursements we receive for providing Medicaid services are well short of our costs, typically between 70 and 80 cents on the dollar. We take any decision to end any person's employment very seriously, and we regret the necessity of it. We will do everything possible to help those affected find new opportunities, either within or outside Baystate Health."

According to the release, affected employees will receive severance pay and extension of benefits in accordance with their tenure of service and job placement assistance.

Baystate Health has a total of 11,500 employees at Baystate Medical Center, Baystate Mary Lane in Ware, Baystate Franklin in Greenfield, Baystate Wing in Palmer and other assorted operations. Of those, 6,100 work at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, the 761-bed hospital that also serves as Western Massachusetts' only Level 1 Trauma Center and has the second-busiest emergency room in all of Massachusetts.

Baystate is already trying to save money through its supply chain, process improvement and energy efficiency.

Shortly after the jury of eight women and four men resumed deliberations Friday morning, the panel submitted a question to U.S. District Judge Mark G. Mastroianni.

SPRINGFIELD - Jurors have resumed deliberations in the money-laundering, fraud and extortion trial of former Lee Police Chief Joseph Buffis in U.S. District Court.

After more than two weeks of testimony, including two days on the witness stand for the defendant, the jury began mulling the case on Thursday afternoon.

Buffis is accused of siphoning $120,000 from the Laliberte Toy Fund, a police-sponsored Christmas charity for needy children, over a decade to dig himself out of steep personal debt. He also is accused of shaking down two former Lee innkeepers for $4,000 in exchange for shelving a prostitution charge.

Buffis denies the accusations; he testified that he purchased thousands of toys for poor families over 34 years of running the charity established by a late police officer in the 1950s. He told jurors he reimbursed himself with public donations when they began rolling in around the holidays for toys he had purchased out-of-pocket all year. The rub: he paid only cash, kept no receipts and state police and federal investigators were hard-pressed to find many recipients once they launched a probe.

Defense lawyer Lori Levinson told jurors during closing arguments that her client was a real-life Santa Claus being persecuted much like the fictional Kris Kringle in "Miracle on 34th Street."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven H. Breslow countered that Buffis was "more of a Grinch who Stole Christmas."

Shortly after the jury of eight women and four men resumed deliberations Friday morning, the panel submitted a question to U.S. District Judge Mark G. Mastroianni.

It read: "Please provide definition of extortion under color of official right," which is the exact language of the charge, referring to Buffis' formal role as a public official.

After some discussion with lawyers in the case, Mastroianni advised the jurors to refer to his original instructions and refine their question if they felt it remained unanswered.

The Republican is in the courtroom and will provide updates on deliberations.

The graduates each received $1,000 scholarships.

LUDLOW - Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Co. has awarded $1,000 scholarships to Ludlow High School Class of 2015 graduates Jacqueline Dias and Jacob Francisco.

MMWEC annually awards two $1,000 scholarships to Ludlow High School graduates pursuing a college education in engineering, environmental sciences, finances or accounting.

Francisco will study electrical engineering at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Francisco is a soccer player and captain of the varsity track and field team. He has been a national Honor Society member for three years. He is a member of the French Club, vice president of his class and a member of the Student Council.

Dias plans to study environmental science at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. She is a member of the National Honor Society and a John & Abigail Adams Scholarship winner. She plays soccer and runs track and is a member of the Portuguese Club.

As part of its commitment to the Ludlow community, MMWEC has awarded $34,000 in scholarships to help Ludlow High School students defray the cost of higher education since the inception of the scholarship program in 1998.

MMWEC is the operator and principal owner of the Stony Brook power plant on Moody Street and has been a corporate resident of Ludlow for nearly 40 years.

Boston Public Library President Amy Ryan told reporters on Thursday that she will still honor her July 3 resignation date even though the missing artwork that drove her to leave her post was found.

BOSTON -- Boston Public Library President Amy Ryan told reporters on Thursday that she will still honor her July 3 resignation date even though the missing artwork that drove her to leave her post was found.

Her decision to go forward with her resignation appears welcomed at Boston City Hall.

Ryan said she would not speculate what she would have done if the artwork was found before she submitted her resignation.

Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh told the Boston Herald that he is ready to move forward from the incident.

"There's still a breakdown here that we have to fix," said Walsh to the Herald.

Ryan offered her resignation after a tense opening meeting with library trustees and city hall officials on Wednesday.

Boston City Councilor Stephen Murphy is calling for more resignations at the BPL in the aftermath of this incident.

"Whether the result of negligence or incompetence, it is abundantly clear that there is a complete lack of oversight by the leadership at the BPL, and it is imperative that the Chairman of the Board of Trustees Jeff Rudman and the other current board members follow President Ryan's lead and step down immediately," said Murphy in a statement.

Michael Bryant, 39, of Chicopee has been sentenced to three years in state prison after admitting to punching a man in West Springfield.

The exterior of the Hampden County Hall of Justice is seen Saturday night.Dwight B. Shepard / The Republican 

SPRINGFIELD — Michael Bryant, 39, has been sentenced to three years in state prison after admitting to punching a man in West Springfield.

Bryant, of Chicopee, pleaded guilty on Thursday before Hampden Superior Court Judge Mark D. Mason to assault and battery causing serious bodily injury.

Assistant District Attorney Melissa G. Doran said the sentence recommendation took into consideration Bryant's prior history of violence and the details of the incident.

She said it appears Bryant punched the victim and knocked him down and then delivered one punch while the victim was on the ground. She said it might be difficult to prove the victim sustained a "serious bodily injury" as defined by the law. Bryant was indicted in this case in October 2014.

Defense lawyer Tracey E. Duncan had previously unsuccessfully argued a motion to dismiss the charge, saying the victim's head injury did not qualify as a "serious bodily injury."

Duncan said Bryant is a father of two children ages 16 and 18 and also has two stepchildren.

Bryant's record includes his admitting a violation of probation on a 2003 case.

In that case, he pleaded guilty to assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, breaking and entering in the nighttime with intent to commit a felony, attempt to commit a crime, two counts of malicious destruction of property over $250 and assault and battery.

In that case he was sentenced in May 2004 to four to five years in state prison plus probation after the sentence. Court records show he violated the probation with a new case and he pleaded guilty in that case on March 12, 2008.

In the 2008 case, he pleaded guilty to assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and assault and battery. He was sentenced to five to seven years in state prison.

Mason asked Duncan, "Maybe you could tell me the source of his violent tendencies and behavior and what he's done to abate it."

She said Bryant has a history of depression. She said Bryant went down to the river in West Springfield and started drinking. The victim, whom he knew, also was there and an altercation started.

The cockpit apparently filled with smoke as it approached Bradley.

Patrick Johnson | pjohnson@repub.com 

Reports out of Connecticut are that a commercial flight from Newark, New Jersey made an emergency landing at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks after a small fire broke out in the cockpit.

The aircraft landed safely and no one was injured, according to NBC Connecticut. The cockpit filled up with smoke approaching the airport. The aircraft was a Bombardier Dash 8, a propeller driven plane.

According to the Hartford Courant, the plane was an United Express flight from Newark to Bradley

Eyewitness News 3 in Hartford reported that state police said the plane developed mechanical issues.

Fire crews from several towns were called to Bradley Airport to assist. The airport remains open.

Mark Gayle, 22, of Springfield has been found guilty of trafficking firearms.

Buffy Spencer | bspencer@repub.com 

SPRINGFIELD — A Hampden Superior Court jury on Friday found Mark Gayle guilty of trafficking firearms and nine other firearms crimes.

Gayle, 22, of Springfield, will be sentenced June 11 by Judge Constance M. Sweeney.

The jury deliberated about two hours to reach the verdicts.

The other charges of which he was found guilty were three counts of carrying a firearm without a license, two counts of possession of a firearm without a firearms identification card and four counts of possession of a large capacity feeding device.

Defense lawyer Thomas E. Robinson in his closing argument said there must be at least three functional firearms for the prosecution to prove someone is guilty of gun trafficking. He said one of the three guns presented by the prosecution had a broken firing pin and thus shouldn't be considered a weapon under the law.

Assistant District Attorney Mary Sandstrom said the gun could be easily fixed and thus did count as a firearm.

Jurors were shown a video of a police interview with Gayle after he had been arrested in December 2010. Robinson said it was clear that Gayle did not understand his rights at the time. Gayle was 17 years old when the gun sales were alleged to have taken place in late 2009 and early 2010.

Gayle was indicted in 2011. The case has wended its way through the court system since then, with changes in defense lawyers and prosecutors, various motions filed and continuances for differing reasons.

He has been incarcerated some of the time since being indicted but has been free on bail much of the time.

Gayle was arrested after undercover state troopers set up gun buys using a confidential informant.

University spokeswoman Molly Watson released a statement explaining why Westfield State paid photographer Brandon Stanton $30,000 to speak for 14 minutes.

The Boston Globe reports that Westfield State University paid this year's commencement speaker $30,000 and UMass Amherst paid world-renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson about the same.

The newspaper surveyed more than 60 colleges and universities, both public and private, and reported its findings Thursday.

Photographer Brandon Stanton, who runs the popular blog "Humans of New York," told the Globe that the money he earned from the May 16 speech will support the ad-free site.

University spokesperson Molly Watson released a statement to MassLive explaining why Westfield State paid Stanton $30,000 in public money to speak for 14 minutes.

"Commencement is the final academic ceremony for our undergraduates ... We want it to be a powerful, meaningful day for them, and work hard to craft a memorable commencement ceremony the substance of which reflects the values of the university," Watson said.

"We typically look for a speaker in the $15-20K range, which is generally our target; we have gone past that when we thought is was warranted, but are trying to dial it back to that level," she added.

Watson said the graduating class leadership has a voice in choosing their speaker and they refused to support bringing in any politicians.

The Globe reports UMass Amherst gave Tyson $25,000 as well as $1,235 for anticipated taxes and $1,500 for travel and accommodations. His speech lasted 17 minutes and it was the first time a commencement speaker was paid.

The article quotes Edward Blaguszewski, the university's spokesman:

The decision was based on the desire to have a compelling, widely respected public figure address the graduating class at the culminating event of their academic careers at UMass Amherst. ... While his speaking engagement was not linked to any campus fund-raising activities ... [it] resulted in worldwide recognition for UMass Amherst and our graduating class.

UMass Lowell reportedly paid the highest amount of any school in the survey: $35,000 for three speeches by "Reading Rainbow" host and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" actor LeVar Burton, including two commencement addresses and one at a scholarship fundraiser.

Both UMass campuses used private funding, the Boston Globe found. Many surveyed schools, including top-tier universities like Harvard, said they don't pay their commencement speakers.